Will that profane person ever stoop to an Angel who is thus familiar with God himself And for the Law it goeth for a letter a title and no more For Ceremonies they were but shadows but are now monsters Christ in appearance left us two and but two and some have dealt with them as they use to do with monsters exposed them to scorn and flung them out Prov. 25.11 So that this counsel now in respect of us will not appear as an apple of gold with pictures of silver but may seem to be quite out of its place and season But yet let us view it once again and we shall find that it is a general prescript looking forward and applyable to every age of the Church an antidote against all errours and deviations And if we take it as we should it will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 look round upon all and either prevent or purge out all errour whatsoever For though our errours be not the same with the Colossians yet they may proceed from the same ground and be as dangerous or worse Peradventure we may be in no danger of Philosophy but we may be in danger of our selves and our Self-love may more ensnare us then Philosophical subtilties can do We may be too stiff to bow to an Angel but our eyes may dazle at the power and excellency of Men Eph. 4.14 and we may be carried about from doctrine to doctrine from errour to errour with every breath of theirs as with a mighty wind And though we stand out against the glory of an Angel yet we may fall down and miscarry by the example of a mortal man In a word we may defie all Ceremonies and yet worship our own imaginations which may be less significant then they Let us then as the Apostle elsewhere speaketh Hebr. 13.22 suffer this word of exhortation Let us view and handle this word of life and it will present us with these two things 1. A Christian mans Duty in these words AMBVLATE IN CHRISTO Walk in Christ. 2. The Rule by which we must regulate our motion and be directed in our Walk SICVT ACCEPISTIS We must so walk in him as we have received him Which two stand in flat opposition to two main errours of our life For either we receive Christ and not walk in him or walk in him but not with a SICVT not as we have received him Of these in their order In the handling of the first we shall point and level our discourse at two particulars and shew you 1. That Christianity is not a lazy and idle profession a sitting still or a standing or a speculation but a Walk 2. Wherein this Walk or motion principally consisteth First we find no word so expressive no word more commonly used in holy Writ then this To walk with God Gen. 5.22 24. to walk before God Gen. 17.1 and 24.40 to walk by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 to walk in good works Ephes 2.10 and in divers other places For indeed in this one word in this one syllable is contained the whole matter the end and sum of all all that can be brought in to make up the perfect man in Christ Jesus For first this bringeth forth a Christian like a pilgrime or traveller Phil. 3.13 forgetting what is behind and weary of the place he standeth in counting those few approches he hath made as nothing ever panting and striving gaining ground and pressing forward to a higher degree to a better place As there is motus ad perfectionem a motion to perfection so there is motus in perfectione a motion and progress even in perfection it self the good Christian being ever perfect and never perfect till he come to his journeyes end Secondly it taketh within its compass all those essential requisites to action It supposeth 1. Faculty to discover the way 2. a Power to act and move in it 3. Will which is nothing else but principium actionis as Tertullian saith the beginning of all motion the imperial power which as Queen commandeth and giveth act to the Understanding Senses Affections and those faculties which are subject to it And besides this to Walk implieth those outward and adventitious helps Knowledge in the Understanding and Love in the Will which are as the Pilgrimes staff to guide and uphold him in his way Rom. 13.13 2 Cor. 5.1 His Knowledge is as the day to him to walk as in the day And his Love maketh his journey shorter though it be through the wilderness of this world to a City not made with hands Hebr. 9.11 nor seen Faculty without Knowledge is like Polyphemus a body with power to move but without eye sight to direct and therefore cannot chuse but offend and move amiss And Faculty and Knowledge without Love and Desire are but like a body which wanting nourishment hath no sense of hunger to make it call for it and therefore cannot but bring leanness into the soul For be our natural faculty and ability what it will yet if we know not our way we shall no more walk in it then the traveller sound of body and limb can go the way aright of which he is utterly ignorant Again be our Abilities perfect and our Knowledge absolute yet if we want a Mind and have no Love if we suffer our selves to be overswayed by a more potent affection to something else we shall never do what we knovv vvell enough and are otherwise enabled to Novv To walk in Christ taketh in all these Faculty Povver Will Knovvledge Love Then you see a Christian in his Walk Psal 19.5 rejoycing as a mighty man to run his race when the Understanding is the counsellour and pointeth out This is the way walk in it Isa 30.21 and the Will hath an eye to the hand and direction of the Understanding boweth it self and as a Queen draweth with it those inferiour faculties the Senses and Affections when it openeth my Eye to the wonders of Gods Law Psal 119.18 Job 31.1 and shutteth it up by covenant to the vanity of the World when it boundeth my Touch and Tast with Touch not Tast not any forbidden thing Col. 2.21 when it maketh the Senses as windows to let in life not Death Jer. 9.21 and as gates shut fast to the World and the Devil and lifting up their heads to let the King of glory in Psal 24.7.9 when it composeth and tuneth our Affections to such a peace and harmony setting our Love to piety our Anger to sin our Fear to Gods wrath our Hope to things not seen our Sorrow to what is done amiss and so frameth in us nunc modulos temperantiae nunc carmen pietatis as S. Ambrose speaketh now the even measures of Temperance now a psalm of Piety now the threnody of a Broken heart even those songs of Sion which the Angels in heaven God himself delight in All these are virtually included in this one duty to
can imagine there can be any man that can so hate himself as deliberately to cast himself into hell and run from happiness when it appeareth in so much glory He cannot say Amen to Life who killeth himself For that which leaveth a soul in the grave is not Faith but Phansie When we are told that Honour cometh towards us that some Golden shower is ready to fall into our laps that Content and Pleasure will ever be near and wait upon us how loud and hearty is our Amen how do we set up an Assurance-office to our selves and yet that which seemeth to make its approach towards us is as uncertain as Uncertainty it self and when we have it passeth from us and as the ruder people say of the Devil leaveth a noysome and unsavoury sent behind it and we look after it and can see it no more But when we are told that Christ liveth for evermore and is coming is certainly coming with reward and punishment vox faucibus haeret we can scarce say Amen So be it To the World and the pomp thereof we can say Amen but to Heaven and Eternity we cannot say Amen or if we do we do but say it For conclusion then The best way is to draw the Ecce and the Amen the Behold and our Assurance together so to study the Death and the Life the eternal Life and the Power of our Saviour that we may be such Proficients as to be able with S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.11 to meet the Resurrection to look for and hasten the coming of the Lord when his Life and Eternity and Power shall shine gloriously to the terrour of those who persecute his Church and to the comfort of those who suffer for Righteousness sake when that Head which was a forge of mischief and cruelty and that Hand which touched the Lords anointed Psal 105.15 and did his Prophets harm shall burn in hell for ever when that Eye which would not look on vanity shall be filled with glory when that Ear which hearkned to his voice shall hear nothing but Hallelujahs and the musick of Angels when that Head which was ready to be laid down for this living everling powerful Lord shall be lifted up and crowned with glory and honour for evermore Which God grant unto us for Christ's sake A SERMON Preached on Whitsunday JOHN XVI 13. Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth WHen the Spirit of truth is come c. And behold he is come already and the Church of Christ in all ages hath set apart this day for a memorial of his Coming a memorial of that miraculous and unusual sound Acts 2.2 3. that rushing wind those cloven tongues of fire And there is good reason for it that it should be had in everlasting remembrance For as the holy Ghost came then in solemn state upon the Disciples in a manner seen and heard so he cometh though not so visibly yet effectually to us upon whom the ends of the world are come that we may remember it though not in a mighty wind yet he rattleth our hearts together though no house totter at his descent yet the foundations of our very souls are shaken no fire appeareth yet our breasts are inflamed no cloven tongues yet our hearts are cloven asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every day to a Christian is a day of Pentecost his whole life a continued holy-day wherein the holy Ghost descendeth both as an Instructer and as a Comforter secretly and sweetly by his word characterizing the soul and imprinting that saving knowledge which none of the Princes of this world had not forcing or drawing by violence but sweetly leading and guiding us into all truth In the words we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Epiphany or Apparition of the blessed Spirit as Nazianzene speaketh or rather the Promise of his coming and appearance And if we will weigh it there is great reason that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ his that he should say Lo I come Psal 40.7 For in the volume of the book it is written of him that the Spirit of the Lord should rest upon him Isa 11.2 and I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 Christus Legis Spiritus Sanctus Evangelii complementum Christ's Advent for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirit 's for the fulfilling and compleating of the Gospel Christ's Advent to redeem the Church and the Spirit 's to teach the Church Christ to shed his blood and the Spirit to wash and purge it in his blood Christ to pay down the ransome for us captives and the Spirit to work off our fetters Christ Isa 61.2 Luke 4.19 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit to interpret it For we may soon see that the one will little avail without the other Christ's Birth Death and Passion and glorious Resurrection are but a story in Archivis good news sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it and teach us to know him and the virtue and power of his resurrection and make us conformable to his death Phil 3.10 This is the sum of these words And in this we shall pass by these steps or degrees First we will carry our thoughts to the promise of the Spirit 's Advent the miracle of this day Cùm venerit When he the Spirit of truth is come in a sound to awake the Apostles in wind to move them in fire to enlighten and warm them in tongues to make them speak Acts 2.2 3. Secondly we will consider 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work and employment of the Holy Ghost He shall lead you into all truth In the first we meet with 1. nomen Personae if we may so speak a word pointing out to his Person the demonstrative pronoun ILLE when He 2. nomen Naturae a name expressing his Nature He is the Spirit of truth and then we cannot be ignorant whose Spirit he is In the second we shall find nomen Officii a name of Office and Administration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leader or conducter in the way For so the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to be the Apostles leader and conducter that they might not erre but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep on in a straight and even course in the way And in this great Office of the Holy Ghost we must first take notice of the Lesson he teacheth It is Truth Secondly of the large Extent of this Lesson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He leadeth into all truth Thirdly of the Method and Manner of his discipline It is a gentle and effectual leading He driveth us not he draweth us not by violence but he taketh us as it were by the hand and guideth and leadeth us into all truth Cùm venerit ille Spiritus veritatis First though we are told by some
saved and make them nigh unto him to follow in the same method à morte ad vitam from suffering to glory from death to life Tota ecclesia cum Christo computatur ut una persona Hebr. 2.10 Christ and his Church are in computation but one person He ought to suffer and they ought to suffer They suffer in him and he in them Luke 24.26 to the end of the world Nor is any other method answerable either to his infinite Wisdome and Justice which hath set it down in indeleble characters or to our mortal and frail condition which must be bruised before it can be healed and be levelled with the ground before it can be raised up Quicquid Deo convenit homini prodest saith Tertullian that which is convenient for Christ is profitable for us That which becometh him we must wear as an ornament of grace unto our head There is an oportet set upon both Luke 24.26 He ought and we ought first to suffer and then to enter into glory to die first that we may rise again First it cannot consist with the Wisdome of God that Christ should suffer and die and that we might live as we please and then reign with him and so pass à deliciis in delicias from one paradise to another that he should overcome the Devil for those who will be his vassals that he should foil him in his proud temptations for those who will not be humble and beat off his sullen temptation for those who will distrust and murmure that he should make his victorious death commeatum delinquendi a licence and charter for all generations to fling away their weapons and not strike a stroke If he should have done this we could not have taken him for our Captain and if we will not enter the lists he will not take us for his Souldiers Non novimus Christum si non credimus We do not know Christ if we believe him not to be such a one as he is a Captain that leadeth us as Moses did the children of Israel through a wilderness full of fiery Serpents into Canaan through the valley of death into life Nor is it expedient for us who are not born but made Christians and a Christian is not made with a thought whose lifting up supposeth some dungeon or prison in which we formerly were whose rising looketh back into some grave Tolle certamen nè virtus quidem quicquam erit Take away this combat with our spiritual enemies with afflictions and tentations and Religion it self will be but a bare name and Christianity as Leo the tenth is said to have called it but a fable What were my Patience if no Pain did look towards it What were my Faith if there were no Doubt to assault it What were my Hope if there were no Scruple to shake it What were my charity if there were no Misery to urge it no Malice to oppose it What were my Day if I had no Night or what were my Resurrection if I were never dead I was dead saith the Lord of life And his speech is directed to us who do but think we live being indeed in our graves entombed in this world which we so love compassed about with enemies covered with disgraces raked up as it were in those evils that are those locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit Rev. 9 3. And when we hear this voice and by the virtue and power of it look upon these and make a way through them we rise with Christ 1 John 5.4 our hope is lively and our faith is that victory which overcomeh the world Nor need this method seem grievous unto us For these very words I was dead may put life and light into it and commend it not onely as the truest but as a plain and easie method For by Christ's Death we must understand all those miseries that he suffered before which were as the train and ceremony of his Death as the officers of the High priest to lead him to it as Poverty Scorn and Contempt the Burden of our sins his Agony and bloody Sweat These we must look upon as the principles of this heavenly Science by which our best Master learned to succour us in our sufferings to lift us up out of our graves and to raise us from the dead There is life in his death and comfort in his sufferings For we have not such an High priest who will not help us Hebr. 4.15 2.17 but which is one and a chief end of his suffering and death who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and is merciful and faithful hath not only power for that he may have and not shew it but will and propension also desire and diligent care to hold up them who are ready to fall and to bring them back who were even brought to the gates of death Indeed Mercy without Power can beget but a good wish S. James his complemental charity Be ye warmed and Be ye filled and Be ye comforted Jam. 2.16 which leaveth us cold and empty and comfortless And Power without Mercy will neither strengthen a weak knee nor heal a broken heart It may as well strike us dead as revive us But Mercy and Power when they meet and kiss each other will work a miracle will uphold us when we fall and raise us from the dead will give eyes to the blind and strength to the weak will make a fiery furnace a bath a rack a bed and persecution a blessing will call those sorrows that are as if they were not Such a virtue and force such life there is in these three words I was dead For though his Compassion and Mercy were coeternal with him as God yet as Man he learnt them He came into the world as into a school and there learnt them by his sufferings and death Hebr. 5.8 For the way to be sensible of anothers misery is first to feel it our selves It must be ours or if it be not ours we must make it ours before our heart will melt I must take my brother into my self I must make my self as him before I help him I must be that Lazar that beggeth of me Luke 16. Luke 10.30 34. and then I give I must be that wounded man by the way-side and then I powre my oyl and wine into his wounds and take care of him I must feel the Hell of sin in my self before I can snatch my brother out of the fire Compassion is first learnt at home and then it walketh abroad Job 29.15 and is eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and so healeth two at once both the miserable and him that comforts him They were both under the same disease one as sick as the other I was dead and I suffered are the main strength of our salvation For though Christ could no more forget to be merciful then he could leave off to be
It is no concluding argument That we please God when we are imployed in the punishment of those that offend him Nor can we thus argue no more then we can attribute reason and wisdom to an Asse because it pleased God once to make use of so contemptible a creature to reprove the folly of a Prophet Numb 22.27 2 Pet. 2.16 Secondly this cloud giveth light to the Israelite by which he may order his steps with more caution and wariness Our Saviour saith we may make a friend of Mammon Luk. 16.9 and S. Chrysostom addeth even of the Devil himself so may a true Israelite make a friend of a Philistine and they who survive may learn by the four and thirty thousand who were slain who being dead yet speak unto them and us to fly from the wrath of God who when we rebel against him can punish us by far worse then our selves Oh who would not look upon those sins as the most horrid spectacles in the world for the punishment of which God should cull out such instruments as are under a greater curse fitter for the fire then those on whom they are used If we go on and continue in sin Joel 2.25 God may send out his great army against us the Locust the Cankerworm the Caterpillar and the Palmerworm and eat up our harvest Hab. 2.11 He may raise up every creature even timber out of the wall to speak against us And if we still stand out against him he may raise up some accursed alien some Philistine some child of perdition to wreak his vengeance upon us And who would not be afraid of that cup of bitterness which must be brought to him by the hand of a Philistine and forsake sin if not for the punishment yet for the executioner A sad sight it was to see David the father whipt for his adultery by his Son and David the King chastised by his subject who should have kist his feet 2 Sam. 16.11 of whom he himself saith The Lord bid him do it to see a whole nation carried away captive by a Man who did afterwards degenerate into a Beast to see so many thousand Isaelites fall at the feet of Idolaters of the servants of Dagon But the Inscription is indeleble What is written is written DOMINVS EST It is the Lord. 4. Now in the last place not onely the Priests and the People but the Ark it self was delivered up the Ark of God's Covenant and the Ark of his strength Psal 132.8 Numb 7.89 Hebr. 9 4. Exod. 31.18 1 Sam. 4.21 22. Job 40.5 from whence God gave his Oracles wherein were the Tables of the Laws the Testimony written by the finger of God the Glory of God as Phinehas his wife calleth it even this was made a prey to cursed Aliens and brought in triumph into the house of Dagon Chapter 5. And here we may lay our hands upon our mouth as Job Once have we spoken yea twice but here is a great depth horrour and amazement and we may fear to proceed any further What will God defeat his own command deliver up his own Ordinance Psal 78.61 deliver up his strength into captivity and his glory into the enemies hands Yes even here it is the Lord. God did it because he suffered it to be done did it as one asleep Psal 78.65 withdrew himself When he awaketh then he will lift up his hand and it shall fall heavy upon the Philistine and bruise him to pieces Then it shall be his power and irresistable arm now it is but his connivence and permission What the rage of the persecutour what the Philistine what the Devil doth God is said to do and in many places of Scripture it is called his will 1. Because he willingly permitteth it For should he interpose his power it could never be done 2. Because he foretelleth and threatneth it and bindeth it with an oath as he doth here 1 S m. 3.14 which he would never do if he meant to hinder it 3. Though he willeth not the thing it self Murder Sacriledge and the Profanation of his Ark yet notwithstanding some good will of God is accomplished by it And even in the most horrid execution some good will of God may be accomplished He delivered up Christ to be crucified but his will was to save the World And he that was willing his Son should suffer yet hated the Jews and for that very fact made their house desolate He found them in the gall of bitterness and left them so to do his will when they brake it The Malice was their own and God suffered them to breathe it forth but the issue and event thereof was an act of Gods Will of his Wisdom of his Power And thus here he delivered up the Ark but it was to preserve it as Agesilaus abrogated the Laws of Lycurgus that he might establish them Vt semper esse possent aliquando non fuerunt Valer. Max. l. 7. c. 2. saith the Historian They were laid aside a while that they might remain and be in force for ever So God suffereth his Ark to be led into captivity that it might conquer first Dagon then the Israelite that it might strike off the hypocrisie of the Israelite and work and fashion him to the will of God of whom the Ark was but a representation He suffered it to be removed for a time that it might be restored again both to its place and dignity For we may observe in the Israelites what if we could be impartial we might soon discover in our selves in the use of those helps which God hath graciously afforded us They both honoured and dishonoured the Ark they gave too high an esteem and yet undervalued it they called it their God and made it their idole A strange contradiction yet so visible in the course and progress of carnal worshippers that he that seeth them in their race would think they run two contrary wayes at once are very religious and very profane invade heaven with violence and yet drive furiously to the lowest pit First we have just reason to imagin that when the Ark was taken up upon the Levites shoulders and they sang Let God arise Numb 10.35 Psal 68.1 which was the set and constant form they spake not by metaphor but as if indeed they had their God on their shoulders For when Israel was smitten ver 2. Let us bring say they the ark of the Covenant ver 3. The Ark is brought out and now victory is certain for when it cometh amongst us it will save us say they But as Epictetus once taught his Scholars that they should so behave themselves that they might be an ornament to the Arts and not the Arts unto them so the integrity of the Jew should have been a defense to the Ark and not the Ark made use of to stand up for a profane impenitent Israelite For what a wile and sophisme of Satan is
It must be matura conversio Hieron Paulino a speedy and present Turn Festina haerentis in salo naviculae funem magìs praecide quà m solve The Nineteenth SERMON PART IIII. EZEKIEL XXXIII 11. Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes c. TO stand out with God and contend with him all our life long to try the utmost of his patience and then in our evening in the shutting up of our dayes to bow before him is not to turn Nor have we any reason to conceive any hope that a faint confession or sigh should deliver him up to eternity of bliss whom the swinge of his lusts and a multiplyed continued disobedience have carried along without check or controll to his chamber and bed and to the very mouth of the grave who delighted himself in evil till he can do no good Delay if it be not fatall to all for we dare not give laws to Gods Mercy yet we have just reason to fear it is so to those that trust so to God's Mercy as to run on in their evil wayes till the hand of Justice is ready to cut their thread of life and to set a period to that and their sins together Turn ye turn ye that is now that it be not too late Proceed we now to the second property of Repentance the Sincerity of our Turn This Ingemination in the Text hath more heat in it for it serveth not onely to hasten our motion and Turn but to make it true and real and sincere When God biddeth us turn he considereth us not as upon a stage but in his Church where every thing must be done not acted where all is real nothing in shadow and representation where we must be holy as he is holy perfect as he is perfect true as he is true where we must behave our selves as in the house of God 1 Tim. 3.15 which is not peâ—gula pictoris a Painters shop where all is in shew nothing in truth Joel 2.13 Not our garments but our hearts must be rent that as Christ our head was crucified indeed not in shew or phantasm as Marcion would have it so we may present him a wounded soul a bleeding repentance a flesh crucified and so joyn as it were with Christ in a real and sincere putting away and abolishing of sin God is Truth it self true and faithful in his promises ☜ Psal 33.9 If he speak he doth it if he command it shall stand fast and therefore he hateth a feigned forced wavering imaginary Repentance To come in a visour or disguise before him is an abomination Nor will he give true joy for feigned sorrow heaven for a shadow everlasting happiness for a counterfeit and momentany Turn and eternity for that which is not for that which is nothing And Repentance if it be not sincere is nothing Nazianz. Orat 19. The holy Father will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is feigned is not lasting That which is forced faileth and endeth with that artificial spring that turneth it about as we see the wheels of a clock move not when the plummet is on the ground because the beginning of that motion is ab extrà not from an internal form but from some violence or art without Seneca Simplex recti cura multiplex parvi There is but one true principle of a real Turn the fear of God there may be very many of a false one Septem mendaciis eget mendacium unum ut verum videatur De Indulg Martine Luther said that one lie had need of seven more to draw but an apparency of truth over it that it may pass under that name So that which is not sincere is brought in with a troop of attendants like it self and must be set off with great diligence and art when that which is true commendeth it self and needeth no other hand to paint or polish it What art and labour is required to smooth a wrinkled brow Matth. 6.16 What ceremony what noise what trumpets what extermination of the countenance what sad looks what tragical deportment must usher in an Hypocrite What a penance doth he undergo that will be a Pharisee How many counterfeit sighs and forced grones how many fasts how many sermons must be the prologue◠〈◊〉 false Turn to a nominal Turn For we may call it turning from our evil wayes when we do but turn and look about us to secure our selves in them or to make way to worse Ahab and Jezabel did so Absalom did the Jews did so Fast to smite with the fist of wickedness Isa 58.4 and to make their voice to be heard on high A false Turn Wickedness it self may work it Craft and Cruelty may blow the trumpet in Sion Joel 2.15 and sanctifie a fast A feigned Repentance Oppression Policy Love of the world Sin it self may beget it and so advance and promote it self and be yet more sinful And commonly a false Turn maketh the fairest shew and appeareth in greater glory to a carnal eye then a true one Plin. Panegyr Ingeniosior ad excogitandum simulatio veritate Hypocrisie is far more witty seeketh out more inventions and many times is more diligent and laborious then the Truth because Truth hath but one work to be what it is and taketh no care for outward pomp and ostentation nor cometh forth at any time to be seen unless it be to propagate it self in others Now by this we may judge of our Turn whether it be right and natural or no. As we may make many a false Turn so there may be many false springs and principles to set us a turning Sometimes fear may do it sometimes Hope sometimes Policy and in all the Love of our selves more then of God And then commonly our Tragedy concludeth in the first scene nay in the very prologue our Repentance is at an end in the very first Turn Nemo potest personam diu ferre Ficta cito in naturam suam recidunt Sen. 1. de Clem. c. 1. in the very first shew Ahab's Repentance was but a flash at the Prophets thunder Pharaoh's Repentance was driven on with an East-wind and compast about with locusts an inconstant false and desultory Repentance I cannot better compare it then to motions by water-works Whilest the water runneth the devise turneth round and we have some Story of the Bible presented to our eyes but when the water is run out all is at an end and we see that no more which took our eyes with such variety of action So it is many times in our Turn which is no better then a pageant Whilest the waters of affliction beat upon us we are in motion and may present divers actions and signs of true Repentance Our eyes may gush out with tears we may hang down our head and beat our breast our tongue our glory may awake our hands may be stretched out to the poor we may cry Peccavi with David put
manifested his Wisdome his Justice his Love in whom he hath made the fullest discovery of himself that he is to us merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth whom he offereth unto us to be seen with the eye of our faith to be embraced with the arms of our affections to be received into the stomach of our souls and so to be conveyed through all the powers and parts of the inward man that we may grow up in him who is our Head and being partakers of him be made partakers of that glory which he hath purchased for us All this is made good unto us by Faith but In the last place not by a dead and unactive Faith looking up upon Christ but gathering no strength or virtue from him and no more considering our high Priest then as if he had never offered himself never satisfied for us for how can we think that heaven should be built upon such aire that that peace which passeth our thought should be bought at so cheap a rate as a thought but a Faith which worketh by Charity and that both towards God and towards our brethren For these two Christian virtues are inseparable and bear witness one to the other My Faith begetteth my Charity and my Charity publisheth and declareth my Faith They go hand in hand and help and advance each other He that separateth them doth not thereby prove that they are separate in themselves but that they are separate from him and that he hath but one of them and that also not the thing but the name For what Faith is that that worketh not by Love and what Love is that that is not kindled in us by Faith They are like Hippocrates his twins they live and die together When Faith is alive Charity is working of miracles healing the sick giving eyes to the blind and scattering her bread on the waters When Faith doth but float on the tongue Charity is but good words Depart in peace c. When Faith waxeth feeble Charity is but cold and when Charity cannot stretch out the hand nor open the mouth the Apostle telleth us Faith is dead It hath been the great fault of the world to make Faith an Idol and Charity Nothing But we must joyn them together before we come to Christ's Table or else we do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 approve our selves Nay they must be joyned together or they will not subsist but such a Faith and such a Charity as are heard but neither seen nor felt such a Faith and such a Charity as are but names and may be written on the visour of an hypocrite Let them therefore both meet and be united in our trial and preparation to this Sacrament which is a Sacrament of Union not onely of the Head with the Members but of the Members one with another under one Head Christ joyneth us unto himself by Love and by the same Love commandeth us to grow up together into one body and not to flie asunder by pride and malice and contention He that loveth God will love his brother also If we believe in Christ if the eye of our Faith be so clear as to see him with all his riches and glories with that glory which he hath prepared for us we cannot but love him and if we love him this Love will distil to the very skirts of his garment to the lowest member he hath Our Love of God consisteth in our admiration of his Majesty in a due acknowledgment of and subjection to his Wisdom and Justice and Power which we see but at distance in those effects which they produce but it is most visible in these our communications one to another I love God is soon said but it is a lie saith S. John if I love not my brother also It is reported of this Evangelist in whose Epistles this precept of LOVE is so often mentioned that being aged and brought to the congregation in a chair because through weakness he was not able to hold out in a continued speech his whole Sermon was but a repitition of these words Children love one another And being asked the reason his answer was Quia praeceptum Christi est si solum fiat sufficit That it was the precept of the Lord and if this onely were observed all was done And no doubt it is the peculiar precept of the Lord and sufficient of it self For if it be done as it ought it cannot but proceed from the Love of God since the Love of our selves and the Love of the world is the onely hinderance of this Love For why doth an injury stir my bloud and invenom my gall but because I love my passion and had rather be its slave then at the command of Christ to master it Why doth a disgrace cloud me with melancholy but because I had rather have my name great on earth then written in the book of life Why do we persecute and oppress our brethren but because we seek rather esteem from men then the face and favour of God Private interest is the great God of this world to which most do homage before which millions of men fall down and worship and then leave the Love of God behind them tread their brethren under feet and make that desolation which at this day we see on the earth Love of one another is a plant of our heavenly Father's setting But where doth it grow May we find it in the Commonwealth There is Love but it is set in dung in earthly hopes or fleshly respects And it groweth up in shew of some bulk and greatness but it beareth no better fruit then Complement and Good language If you shake and trouble it this fruit falleth and is turned into stones It beginneth in a kiss and endeth in a wound Like the thieves Salvian speaketh of it embraceth and killeth Shall we look for it in the Church That is a Paradise indeed and there it should grow But then it is in that Church which is not seen for there is little of it in that which is visible There are almost as many sects as men There every phansie is a sword keen enough to make a division Every slight opinion setteth men at variance and for that which is but opinion for that which is nothing men bite and devour one another A Church militant indeed it may well be called in this sense For there is nothing but wars and fighting noise and confusion such a Church Militant as in the greatest part of it shall never be Triumphant And yet here in the Church visible it is preached on the house tops Here it is taught by the Word and here it is taught by the Sacrament But to the most the one is but a sound and the other a sign and if it be but a sound and no more it is a knell and if we receive no more then a bare sign we receive more then we should the sentence of condemnation In
and rejoyce at the sound of the organ But for the righteous it is not so with them They are killed every day The drunkards make songs of them They hang down the head like a bulrush Their whole life is accounted madness This indeed was painful for David to know it was even his sickness But when he went into the Sanctuary of God and considered his wisdom and providence guiding every thing to its end and changing the face of things putting a lustre and glory on that which flesh and bloud looked upon with horrour and compassing that about with woes which it beheld with admiration then understood he their end the end of both Psal 73. The one placed in slippery places tumbled down into destruction the other lifted up their heads because salvation and comfort drew near For Pleasure and Grief as they have divers aspects so also have contrary effects Pleasure smileth and Grief weepeth but there is bitterness in those smiles and joy in those tears II. Now to shew how useful Mourning is it will not be amiss to compare them both both Delight and Mourning For certainly when our Saviour joyneth Blessedness and Mourning he layeth a kind of imputation upon Pleasure as it it were the very mother and nurse of all misery Naturally we seek it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle from our tender years And all our life long we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incline to pleasure as a stone doth to the center Xerxes proposed great rewards to those who did invent new delights The Roman Emperours set up offices à voluptatibus They had their Arbitri their Praepositi their Tribunes of pleasure and they accounted none more generous then those who were most sportful Homer bringeth in the Gods themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spending their time in mirth and jollity So hath Pleasure bewitched the world that without it nothing is received without it the world it self were nothing The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear with hearing And as if Nature had not afforded us variety enough we have made a kind of art of pleasure We have mingled it with our labour made that as easie as we could we have mingled it with our sorrow ready to receive it even into a broken heart and we have mingled it with our Religion attempered that to our sense made it gentle and plyable more answerable to our lusts and sinful desires For who doth not make his burthen sit as easie as he can Who would not have a Religion that should bow and condescend to his desires that should grant charters and indulgences to the flesh and so à deliciis transire in delicias pass from delight to delight from sensual delight to spiritual out of a Seraglio a stews a theatre into heaven And this hath brought in that deluge of sin and misery that when Religion threatneth us with scorpions with crosses with tribulations with mortifications we silence her or put our own words into her mouth teach her to speak placentia more pleasing things and so retain her name but make her depart out of our coasts S. Basil calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the devil's hook with which he haleth men to destruction by which he striveth mentem facere amentem to divide the mind from it self and distract it Dei templum in theatrum voluptatum vertere to change the temple of God into a theatre of luxury For indeed all the evil that befalleth us is from our selves from our bodies which we strive to pamper up Had we not eyes we should not be so blind and had we not ears we should not be so deaf Did we not too much favour our bodies our souls would flourish more be more active and vigorous in those duties which must make them perfect There is saith Gregory Nazianzene a kind of warlike opposition between the Body and the Soul and they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pitch their tents one against another When the Body prevaileth the Soul is down when that is most active even like a wanton heifer or a wild ass then is the Soul sick even bed-rid with sin Empedocles the Philosopher taught that Lis and Amicitia Enmity and Friendship were the two common principles of all things in the world But had he carefully observed the composition of Man he had found Enmity good store but Friendship none at all For from whence do all our turbulent affections spring Philo will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they are the natural issues of our flesh From whence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inquinations and pollutions of the soul from whence those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tumults those thunders and earthquakes All these are from the earth earthly For that which is born of the flesh is flesh And the body is not onely an enemy but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a castle of defence for all the enemies the soul hath It was a wise wish of Archytas that he might rather be taken with madness then with pleasure And Simplicius accounted it a great benefit of Nature that no pleasure was of long continuance nè diu insani essemus that we might not be long mad For she leadeth the Senses in triumph and Reason captive at their heels to wait upon them and be ministerial to them What evil ever yet befell any almost but from Pleasure Shee befooleth the wise Look upon Solomon She perverteth the just Behold David She weakeneth the strong as we see in Samson Assyria drew its last breath at a feast Gluttony betrayed Babylon and riot Nineveh And we had been at this day a happy Nation had we not been lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God Every man seeketh his own private pleasure and within a while he seeth it snatched from him and buried in the ruines of the whole Death it self would have no such strength but that it borroweth aid and a subsidiary force from Sensuality and Pleasure Quae violas lasciva jacit foliisque rosarum Dimicat calathos inimica per agmina fundit Prudent which destroyeth us not with a sword and a spear or the weapons of the mighty but with violets and roses with smiles and flattery with colours and tasts with delights with nothing Which maketh the Father cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What should we do what would be our end if temporal pleasures had been firm and lasting which being but brittle and frail more mortal then Mortality it self do yet chain and fetter us unto themselves and when we cleave most unto them fly from us but leave such an impression and mark behind them that we prefer them before true Happiness and fall off from them as Lucifer did from heaven For when we lose them we are in hell Clemens Alexandrinus saith they make men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like wax that the devil may set what impression he pleaseth upon them now the bloudy face of Murther anon the wanton looks of Lust
himself or cast his eye upon one limb but he must needs remember the miracle and who it was that wrought it Yet it was not so in his heart as to work it and draw it to its end And this is rather a Thought then Memory Therefore Christ seeketh him out and findeth him and then doth lacessere memoriam rub and revive his memory with an ECCE Behold thou art made whole Where we have two things present themselves unto our view as most remarkable 1. What it is Christ calleth him to behold 2. What it is to behold it So you have the Object and the Act the Object Thou art made whole the Act commended or enjoyned to behold and consider it For the first No eye is fitter to behold a benefit then his that received it none fitter to consider a miracle then he on whom it was wrought Therefore God though he giveth and upbraideth not yet every where almost in Scripture draweth large catalogues of the favours he hath done for his people He maketh the Creation the Choice the Deliverance of them so many arguments and motives to win them to obedience Isa 43.7 I have made thee Isa 42.6 Ezek. 16.6 9. Hos 11.3 I have created thee I have called thee in righteousness I said unto thee when thou wert in thy bloud Live I washed thee with water and anointed thee with oyle I taught Ephraim to go taking them by their arms Who hath wrought and done it Isa 41.4 calling the generations from the beginning I the Lord the first and with the last I am He. The whole Scripture is a register of God's noble acts and of his goodness which he hath shewed to the sons of men And all this to what end that we should praise him Yes But with the breath of a mortal Qualis laus quae è macelto peti potest What praise is that which we may hear in a shambles which may be sent forth from a rotten sepulchre from the hollow heart of an hypocrite Nay what are all the Anthems and Hosannas and Hallelujahs of all the men on earth and of all the Angels in heaven What is it to him whose glory is in himself and with himself everlastingly and which is above all the earth No He remembreth us of them that we may remember them He setteth them up as representations of his love that we may look upon them and delight in them and draw them out in our souls and place them there not onely as pictures of his Love but also as intimations and expressions of his Will For in every benefit there is some will of his signified Every benefit carrieth with it a command to use it to the right end for which it was given Seneca saith well Multum interest inter materiam beneficii beneficium There is great difference between the matter or outside of a benefit and the benefit it self That may be heard and seen and handled this is seen onely with the eye of the mind which beholding it and judging aright of it and discovering the end for which it was given maketh it a benefit indeed It is here as they speak in the Law Do ut des and Facio ut facias I give thee something that thou maist return something back again I do this for thee and this that I do doth even bespeak thee to do something that is answerable and proportioned to it So Health doth even bespeak us to be up and doing and to run with chearfulness the race that is set before us Riches do even call upon us to be liberal and make friends of them Power doth in a manner command them that have it to break the jaw-bone of the wicked and to be a shadow to the oppressed And Wit and Wisdom do even persuade us to be wise unto salvation For to this end they were given and we must behold them so that they may have this end Benefits are cords of love which tye us to those who give them Therefore as they seem to please and flatter so they also instruct and oblige us Beneficia onera Benefits are burthens Psal 6◠19 He loadeth us daily with his benefits saith the Psalmist Burthens they are which we must bear and not run wildly away with and lay them where a wanton phansie or our lusts shall direct For what was said of our Saviour may be said of his Mercies If we fall upon them that is neglect them we shall be broken but if they fall upon us if we draw the neglect on to the abuse of them they will grind us to powder Christ every where setteth an Ecce as a finger pointing out to his benefits that we may behold and consider them For he raineth not Manna down upon us but that we should gather it He shineth not upon us but that we should walk in his light He doth us good that first his benefits may have their end and make us good and secondly that they be not driven to a contrary end and so prove fatal to us And now the Ecce is a Cave the Indication a Caution Behold and take heed First a benefit is a fair object set up on purpose to be looked upon to be read and studied and interpreted Bonum nihil est quà m interpretatio mali saith Lactantius That good which we receive is a kind of interpretation and comment on that evil which we have escaped We best see the horrour of Poverty in Wealth of Weakness in Power of Ignorance in Wisdom of Sickness in Health And by comparing them together the brightness of the one with the sadness and disconsolateness of the other we may gain this lesson or conclusion That our former poverty should ballast our present abundance that we be not high-minded our former low condition poise our power that we be not insolent our former ignorance temper and qualifie our knowledge that we be not puffed up and our former infirmity check and manage our health that we be not wanton That the providence of God was in them both that both may have their true and proper end Thou shalt compass saith David Psal 5.12 the righteous with thy favour as with a shield Now a Shield is not for shew but use And God putteth his benefits into our hands and reacheth them to us as the Lacedaemonian woman did shields unto their sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either to bring them back with conquest or to be brought home dead upon them To cast shields away or not to use them as shields should be used is a foul disgrace Some render that place Thou hast compassed them as with a crown And a Crown sitteth not upon the head onely as an ornament or indication of power but hath this Inscription EITHER MANAGE IT WELL OR LAY IT DOWN it hath Duty as well as Glory engraven in the circle of it I may say God's benefits compass us about as the heavens do the earth and have their operation
that they might bow before him he was willing to forget their pride that they might renounce it And that they may be low in their own conceit he placeth them high in his favour and entitleth them to a Kingdom He sealeth their pardon that he might sow Humility in their hearts This was the true end why Repentance and Forgiveness of sins was published to set a period to sin and to destroy him who is King over the children of pride For if the hand of God and eternal death had laid upon all mankind if there had been no hope of mercy and reconciliation there had been no place for Humility but fad Despair of ever being high and Certainty of being cast down for ever had swallowed up all Humility and Religion in victory But now Deus sevit poenitentiam saith Tertullian God first sowed the seed of Repentance that Humility might grow up with it proclaimed pardon of sin that men might be humbled for their sin calleth himself a Father of mercies that we his children might be the more willing to acknowledge our selves to be but dust and ashes For we may observe that nothing hath more force and energie to conciliate and bow the hearts of men then Mercy and Beneficence Nunquam magìs nomina facio quà m cùm dono saith Seneca I never oblige men more then by giving Who can swell under an obligation Who can withstand these everlasting burnings Who can rise up under that hand which is sealing his pardon Who will not be his humble servant that will knock off his fettets and set him at liberty Magnes amoris amor Love is the load-stone to draw on Love even that Love which is the mother of Humility And therefore we shall find that the Saints of God did never so humble shall I call it or disgrace themselves as when they were in greatest favour If Jacob have an Angel sent unto him Gen. 32. then he straight contracteth and shrinketh himself I am less then the least of thy blessings Vers 10. for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands When Nathan had pronounced David's pardon then he lieth down on the ground washeth his couch with his tears writeth those Penitential Psalms in perpetuam rei memoriam and setteth them up as so many pillars of remembrance that the generations which were not born might see his Humility and praise the Lord. What am I or what is my father's houshold saith he And when S. Paul had received favour I may ask What was he A servant of Christ An elect vessel And he was so for God himself styleth him so But what doth he write himself what is his style 1 Cor. 15. The very least of the Apostles An abortive born out of due time such as they use to cast it away 1 Tim. 1.15 The chief of sinners In the register of God a Saint but in his own eyes the greatest of sinners Thus have all the Saints of God bowed themselves under the hand that raised them up have been humbled with favours never lower then when they have been in the third heaven bended most when they have been laden with benefits like ears of corn in harvest full and hanging down the head Humble your selves therefore under the mighty hand of God mighty to destroy you and mighty to save you And that we may be active in this Christian exercise in the last place look upon the Motive and Reward which might yield us matter for a large discourse but must now serve onely for a conclusion Humble your selves and he shall exalt you 1. This is God's method his analytical method by which he resolveth us into our principles into a spiritual Nothing and then raiseth us up into a new creature first beateth down the sinner and then raiseth up the Saint first striketh us to the ground and then ripeneth the heavens and sheweth us Christ sitting at the right hand of God It is his method to heal us by contraries to cure us by diseases to raise us by ruine first to wound and then to kiss us These two Humility and Glory stand well together and we must not separate them 2. Nay as Christ calleth his Cross his exaltation so is Humility ours We are lifted up upon it as he was upon his Cross lifted up above the errours and vanities of the world lifted up to converse with Seraphim and Cherubim nay to have fellowship with God himself It lifteth up our Understanding to apprehend God For the lower we are the clearlier we see him Humility seeth that which is veiled to Pride It lifteth up the Will co embrace him For Humility and Obedience are our embracing of God It lifteth up the Affections and setteth them on things above It lifteth us up and buildeth us up a Temple a receptacle for God Isa 57.15 For he that dwelleth in the highest Heaven will dwell also in the lowly spirit in the highest heaven which is his habitation above and in the humble spirit which is his heaven below It is saith the devout School-man the most potent Monarchy in the world making us rich by making us poor making us strong by making us weak making us Kings by making us servants making us wise by making us fools giving us all things by leaving us nothing laying us at God's foot that we may sit in his bosom Scio quibus viribus opus est saith the Father I know what strength I had need of to persuade high minded men to be humble or that Heaven is so low-arched that we must stoop to enter But the eye of Faith I had almost said of Reason may soon discover Humility in these rayes of glory And he that shall set himself seriously to this Christian exercise of Humbling himself under God shall certainly find the force and omnipotency of this virtue and what wonders it can work in his soul shall feel it chearing his spirits strengthning his hand slumbring all tumults filling his heart and fortifying it against all assaults of the Enemy against all the darts of Satan against all those evils which could not hurt us did we not stand so high and think too well of our selves as of priviledged persons exempt from those temptations which are common to men This is the power the Monarchy of Humility 1 Cor. 10.13 To raise up our Understandings to supernatural truths to behold a loathsome World which others dote on delightful Statutes which others are afraid of blessed Afflictions which others tremble at To place our Wills under God's will which is to make us one with him To rouse our Affections to things above And this it will do in our mortal bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is most seasonable in these last times these worst of times these times of darkness and blackness And then when this earthly tabernacle is dissolved when Time shall be no more it will make our exaltation complete and crown us
forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee Beloved the Truth is our lot our inheritance Agnoscite haereditatem in Christo saith the Father Acknowledge and keep the inheritance ye have by Christ not Peace onely but Truth also which is the mother of Peace Let no temptation though as strong as the King as Money as Profit make us yield to the sale of it but let our answer be like that of Naboth God forbid that we should give away the inheritance of Christ God forbid that when the World proferreth fairly to us we should give it for a smile or when our Lusts solicit we should give it up to satisfie them or when the Persecutor breatheth nothing but terrour we should sell it to our fears and at every question that is asked us deny and forswear it God forbid we should sell it as bankrupts do their lands for want or as wantons do for pleasure or as cowards do for safety or as Esau did his birthright for hunger or as the Patriarchs sold Joseph for envy For this were to sell our selves for that which is not bread Isa 55.2 Let the Truth be like the Land of promise which might not be sold for ever Levit. 25.23 because it was the Lord's and so Truth is the Lords and to be destitute of the Truth Ephes 2.12 is to be without God in this world Let us therefore love the Truth and keep it and hold it fast and we shall find the merchandise thereof better then the merchandise of silver Prov. 3.14 and the gain thereof then fine gold Isa 23.8 The merchants hereof are princes and the most honourable traffickers of the earth even Kings and Priests unto God The Lawyers question to Christ was Revel 1.6 What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life Matth. 19.16 17. The answer whereunto is Keep the commandments that is being interpreted the Truth for they both interpret each other This is the price of eternity With this in our hearts in our inward parts but made manifest by our hands in our outward actions we draw near unto happiness in full assurance of faith With this we purchase peace here for it is one seal to the covenant of peace and it shall open the gates of heaven and give us possession of the kingdome of peace with the God of Truth and Peace for evermore Which God grant Amen The Twelfth SERMON MATTH V. 10. Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven THis is the last Beatitude of the eight and looketh back upon all the rest For by this the Christian is brought to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his height and perfection being never nearer heaven then when he is trod under foot upon earth never more righteous then when he suffereth for righteousness never more glorious then in his bloud The first seven consist in action Where we may behold the Poor man fighting against the Pomp of the world the Mourner slighting of Pleasure the Meek subduing his Anger the Just man hungring and thirsting after righteousness feeding on it himself and commending it as the best food to others working it himself and promoting it in others the Merciful binding up wounds and scattering his bread the Pure man washing his hands in innocency and clensing his heart and the Peace-maker closing up every breach and tying the bond of love at peace with himself and all men drawing all men together as far as in him lieth to be of one mind and one heart This last which I now propose unto you consisteth in passion in a willingness and readiness of mind to suffer for all these And this is the seal and ratification of the rest an argument a protestation a demonstration that the rest were in us of a truth And as the first fit us for the last so this declareth and manifesteth the first Then we may know we are righteous when we are ready to suffer for righteousness sake then our Love is made known when we bear about with us the marks of the Lord Jesus For it is a higher degree of perfection to suffer for doing of good then it is to do it In the first we stand out against our selves in the last against our selves and others In the first we fight against our lusts and affections in the last against principalities and powers against fire and sword against the king of terrours Death it self Greater love then this hath no man John 15.13 that a man lay down his life for his friends And therefore Aquinas telleth us that this last Beatitude carryeth with it the perfection of all the rest For he that to nourish and uphold the rest is ready as S. Paul speaketh to spend himself and to be spent to lose his own head and life rather then one hair one tittle or Iota should fall from them doth manifest to God and proclaim to the world that he hath discovered beauty and glory and a heaven in them that his body and goods and life laid in the scales are found too light in comparison of them that they are of no use unless it be to make up a sacrifice to be offered for them When we are willing to part with our goods when we can leave the pleasures which last but for a season and go into the house of mourning when we can chase away our anger and make it set before the Sun when we can make righteousness our daily bread and long for it more then for the honey or the honey comb when we have melting and compassionate hearts when we have clean hearts unspotted of the world when we are at peace with all men and strive to make all men at peace with one another we have made a fair progress in the waies of righteousness But nondum ad sanguinem Hebr. 12.4 we have not yet resisted unto bloud When we can lay down our lives for righteousness sake when we can do that which is just and suffer for that we do then have we crowned the rest and fitted our own heads for a crown of glory He that can suffer what the rage of man or Devil can inflict rather then let go his righteousness he maketh it plain that it is his possession his inheritance his life fastned to his soul never to be divorced his honour when he is in disgrace his riches when he hath not a hole to hide his head in his tabernacle in a storm his delight in torment and when the sword shall part the soul from the body ascending up to heaven and accompanying it to the place of bliss For when the man is killed the Saint is gone home and is escaped to the holy hill In this relation and dependance doth this Beatitude stand with the rest If we be not righteous we cannot suffer for righteousness sake and if we be truly righteous Persecution is a
blessing Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake I have a large field to go over an Aceldama a field of bloud a Golgotha a place of dead mens skulls where you shall see some stoned some sawen asunder some slain with the sword others having tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings of bonds and imprisonment but withal that the eye of flesh cannot discover Blessedness waiting upon them and shadowing them in the midst of horrour Here is a fair inscription upon a bitter roule a pleasing preface to a tragical theme a promise of pleasure in misery of honour in dishonour of life in death of heaven in hell Here we may see persecution making us strong by making us weak making us rich my making us poor making us happy by making us miserable and driving us through this field of bloud into paradise The parts of the Text are manifestly but two a Blessing pronounced Blessed are they that suffer persecution and a Reason given For theirs is the kingdom of heaven But we may by a plain and natural deduction make them three 1. That they who begin in the other Virtues and Beatitudes must end in this or in the Apostle's words They that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution 2. That Persecution bringeth no blessing but to those who suffer for righteousness sake 3. That to those it doth Which comprehendeth the Inscription Blessedness and the Reason of the inscription For theirs is the kingdom of heaven We find here Persecution and Blessedness joyned together wrought by the same hand a hand of mercy and like sweet and bitter water flowing from the same fountain a fountain of love For it is God's love and mercy to give us a kingdom and it is his love and mercy to bring us to it by sufferings to bring us as the Apostles speaketh Acts 12.22 through much tribulation through the noise and tumults of this world to a place of rest Agnosco haereditatem meam in cruce saith Bernard I am an heir to the Cross as well as to the Kingpom They are both entailed upon us both made over to us in the same patent or lease You may find it registred Mark 10.30 Houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands and eternal life but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with persecutions It is threatned 2 Tim. 3.12 I mistake it is promised All that will live godly shall suffer persecution And this cannot be a threat an angry denunciation For in God's anger is death When he striketh the righteous it is as fire to try them but when he smiteth the ungodly it is as fire to consume them It is permitted For without his will a hair cannot fall from our heads It is ordained Decernuntur ista non accidunt as Seneca speaketh These things come not by chance but by decree No sooner had God made Paul a chosen vessel but he doth in a manner expose him to the hammer Go he is a chosen vâ—ssel unto me and it followeth Acts â— 15 ver 16. For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my names sake So that it is also a Prophesie prophesied here and chap. 21. Nam sicut verbis sic rebus prophetatum est saith Tertullian There is a prophesie by words and a prophesie by things Paul's girdle with which Agabus bound himself did plainly foretell that the Apostle should be bound at Jerusalem Acts 21.11 Matth. 18.7 and delivered over into the hands of the Gentiles For as our Saviour speaketh of Offences so may we of Persecution It must needs be that it will come not onely necessitate consequentiae by a necessity of consequence supposing the frail condition of our nature and the changes and chances of a wicked world but necessitate finis in respect of the end for which it is sent for which God in whose power both men and their actions are doth not onely not hinder it by his mighty hand for God's Omnipotence waiteth as it were upon his Wisdom and he cannot do what is not fit to do but permitteth it and by a kind of providence letteth the storm fall on the head of the righteous for their tryal and his glory We know Rom 8.28 saith S. Paul that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose We know that all those evils which every day affront and assault them befall them not onely by the general permission of God but by a special decree which tendeth to their good For they who are called according to his purpose that is who are odedient unto his call may draw life it self out of these waters of Marah and upon these evils raise themselves nearer to God For it followeth Whom he did fore-know that is ver 29. whom he approved as true believers in his Son for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Rom. 11.2 them also did he predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son those did he constitute ordain and set up to be like unto his Son to suffer as he did upon the Cross to be partakers of his sufferings and to go the same way which he did to glory seculi fluctus Christo praeeunte calcare to tread upon the proud waves of this world Christ leading the way before them For as it became him iâ— whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings and because they suffer with him he is not ashamed to call them brethren Hebr. 2.10 11. so it becometh us to look upon Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith and with him to endure the cross Moreover whom he did predestinate Rom. 8.30 that is ordain and constitute to be conformable to the example of his Son them he also called to suffer persecution For hereunto are ye called 1 Pet. 2.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same word S Paul there useth because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps And so Let no man be moved by these afflictions 1 Thes 3.3 for your selves know that we are appointed thereunto that they are ordained by God who doth not onely not hinder but order and dispose the causes of them And then whom he thus calleth those he justifieth he strengthneth and assisteth them that they persevere in the obedience of righteousness and so are made the more just And those who are thus justified who persevere to the end those he glorifieth And this may seem more agreeable to the mind and scope of the Apostle if we either observe what goeth before or what followeth after then that phansie which hath found materials here to file out a Chain of Decrees and yet hath left men doubtful and to seek which is the first link Let every man abound in his own sense so it be not to the prejudice of the
world of our name or credit above the truth of Christ which calleth us out of the world Again this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this full persuasion of mind is prevalent on both sides both in good and evil both for truth and errour A thief may go as chearfully to his death as a martyr The Egyptians saith Tully would endure any torture rather then violate their Ibis or an Aspe or a Dog or a Crocodile The Priests of Mithras passed the sword the fire and famine even fourscore several torments and that with ostentation of alacrity onely that they might be his Priests We have read of Hereticks who have sung in the midst of the flames Nay of Atheists as Scipio Tettus who now burning for setting up a school of Atheism clapped his hands in the midst of his torments Such strength hath persuasion on both sides In illis pietas in istis cordis duritia operatur The love of the truth prevaileth in the righteous and the love of errour in the other Such a power hath the Devil over those hearts which by God's permission he possesseth He can perswade Judas to deny his Master and he can perswade him to hang himself He can drive men into errour and lead them along in triumph rejoycing to their death He can teach men first to kill others then themselves He can first make the grossest errour delightful and then death it self Habet Diabolus suos martyres For the Devil hath his martyrs as well as God The Manichees were Martyrs for they boasted that they suffered persecution and yet did those outrages which none but persecutours could do The Donatists were Martyrs and yet did ravish virgins break open prisons fling the Communion-bread to dogs Garnet was a Martyr and Faux a Martyr when they would have blown up a Kingdom which may be done without gunpowder The Massalians in Epiphanius buried their bodies who were killed for despising and denying the Law and for worshipping of Idols and sung hymns and made panegyricks on them and called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sect of Martyrs So that you see every man is ready to say he is persecuted every man suffereth for righteousness sake every man is a Martyr In every nation and in every people in every sect and in every conventicle we may find Martyrs But this is not the noble army of Martyrs where none are listed but those who suffer for righteousness sake It is not pretense but Truth that must set this crown upon our heads This is praise worthy saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 2.19.20 if a man for conscience toward God endure grief and that not an erring conscience it is very strange we should erre in any of those things for which we must suffer For what glory is it if when you are buffetted for your faults you take it patiently but if when you do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God St. Bernard determineth all in brief proposing to us two things which make death precious and persecution a blessing vitam causam sed ampliùs causam quà m vitam the life of them that suffer and the cause for which they are persecuted but the cause more then the life For seldom will an evil man suffer in a good cause and he is not good who suffereth in a bad for that for which he suffereth maketh him evil If he suffer as a malefactour he is one But when both commend our sufferings then are they praise-worthy That sacrifice is of a sweet-smelling savour which both a good cause and a good life offer up And first the Cause it must be the love of Righteousness For we see as I told you men will suffer for their lusts suffer for their profit suffer for fear suffer for disdain as Cato is blamed by Augustine for killing himself because the haughtiness of his mind could not stoop to be beholden to Caesar and therefore cùm non potuit pedibus fugit manibus whom he could not fly from with his feet he did with his hands and killed himself Which argued a lower spirit and was an act of more dejection and baseness then it would have been to have kissed the foot of Caesar Some we see will venture themselves for their name and hazard their souls for reputation which is but another man's thought But neither are these our pleasure our profit our honour causes why we should suffer death or venture our lives To be willing rather to lose my goods then my humour and my life then my reputation is not to set a right estimate upon them For my goods are God's blessings and I must not exchange them but for better My life is that moment on which eternity dependeth and we should not look back upon that opinion of honour which remaineth behind us but rather look forward upon that infinite space that eternity of bliss or pain which befalleth us immediately after our last breath Be sure your cause be good or else to venture goods or life upon it is the worst kind of prodigality in the world For he that knoweth what life is and the true use of it had he many lives to spare yet would be loth to part with any one of them but upon the best terms We must deal with our life as we do with our money We must not be covetous of it desire life for no other use but to live as covetous persons desire money onely to have it Neither ought we to be prodigal of life and trifle it away upon every occasion To know when and in what cases to offer our selves to suffer and die is a great part of our spiritual wisdom Nam impetu quodam instinctu currere ad mortem cum multis commune Brutishly to run upon and hasten our death is a thing that many men may do as we see brute beasts many times run upon the spears of such as pursue them Sed deliberare causas expendere utque suaserit ratio vitae mortisque consilium suscipere vel ponere ingentis est animi Wisely to look into and weigh every occasion and as judgment and true discretion shall direct so to entertain a resolution either of life or death this is indeed true fortitude and magnanimity Every low and light consideration is not to hold esteem and keep equipage with that Truth which must save us There is nothing but Righteousness which hath this prerogative to call for our lives and it will pay them back with eternity Righteousness which is nothing else but our obedience to the Gospel of Christ and those precepts which he hath left behind to draw us after him We must rather renounce our lives and goods then these rather not be men then not be good Christians Matth. 10.39 Here that is true He that findeth his life for they who to escape danger deny the truth count that escape a thing found and gained look upon it as a new purchase
the Father The Body is Man as well as the Soul And he consisteth of one as well as the other When the Body and Soul are parted the Man is gone This Flesh of ours though it hear ill and seem as an adversary to rise up against the Spirit yet it may prove a singular instrument to advance God's glory and so lift up Man to happiness Adeò Caro est salutis cardo saith Tertullian Our flesh is the very hinge on which the work of our salvation turneth it self For tell me What Christian duty is there which is not performed by the bodie 's ministery Caro alluitur ut anima emaculetur It is washed to purifie the soul It taketh down bread to feed it From it we borrow a Hand to give our alms an Ear to let in faith a Tongue to be a trumpet of God's praise Fastings Persecution Imprisonment nay Martyrdom it self de bonis carnis Deo adolentur are the fruits of the flesh subdued and conquered by us So that Angels themselves may seem in this respect to come short of us mortals They cannot suffer they cannot dye for God because they have no bodies You cannot scourge you cannot imprison you cannot sequester an Angel you cannot behead him but all this you may do unto a mortal man and so make him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like unto and even equal to the Angels I do not read that men are made equal to the Angels till they are dead till their earthly tabernacles be dissolved and built up a again till their natural body be raised a spiritual body Till then we must glorifie God as Men and let the Angels have their Hallelujahs and worship by themselves Let all the Angels worship him and let the Sons of men fall down and kneel before him And let us think the better of our external worship because we see that which is spiritual and angelical is represented unto us in Scripture by this of ours To thee all Angels cry aloud and yet who ever heard an Angel's voice And the Angels stood round about the Throne and fell before the Throne on their faces that is they glorified God Angels are said to have Voice and Hands and Feet that we who have them indeed may use them to his glory S. Hilary upon Psal 143. well expresseth it Homo ipse decem quibusdam chordis manibus pedibus extentus Man in his body his Hands and his Feet is set as an instrument with ten strings and in every gesture and motion toucheth them skilfully to make a harmony to sing a new song to the God of heaven a song composed of divers parts of Spirit and Flesh of Soul and Body Every faculty of the soul every member of the body must bear a part What is the elavation of the Soul Certainly a sweet and high note But then the prostration of the Body tempereth it and maketh it far more pleasant What the ejaculations of the Soul Yes and the incurvation of the Body the lifting up of the Heart yea and of the Hands and Eyes also A holy Thought yea and a reverent Deportment These make him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaketh perfect and complete Otherwise he is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a half-strung a half-tuned Instrument We are yet in the flesh Men not Angels and we have Knees to bend and Hands to lift up and Heads to uncover Why should we be Angels so soon Angels here on earth Why should our glorifying be as theirs is invisible The surest way to happiness is to keep our condition to make good our worship in our flesh to bow and prostrate our selves here that when time shall be no more we may be as the Angels in heaven Glorifying too spiritual is the same with too carnal For that men will not glorifie God but in their spirit is but a vapour raised out of the dung an exhalation from the flesh That men are such enemies to outward expressions and bodily reverence proceedeth from a spirit but it is a spirit of slumber a dreaming spirit a dumb spirit a lazy spirit a stubborn spirit that will not bow a spirit of contradiction I had almost said from the spirit of Antichrist For he doth not confess and glorifie Jesus so far and fully as he should And not to confess Christ is from the spirit of Antichrist 1 John 4.3 For conclusion Let us look up upon the price with which we were bought and let God's exceeding love in redeeming us raise up in us a love of God's glory which may be so intensive and hot within us ut emanet in habitum that it may not be able to contain it self within the compass of the heart but evaporate and work it self out into the outward gesture and break forth out of the conscience into the voice which may open her shop and spiritual wares and behold her own riches and furniture abroad her Liberality in an open hand her Sorrow trickling down the cheeks her Humility in a dejected countenance and her Reverance in a bare head and a bended knee that the body may be the interpreter of the soul and its many different postures and motions be a plain commentary to explain and discover that more retired and indiscernible devotion within This should be our constant and continued practice here on earth to stand as candidates for an Angel's place by glorifying God here in our earthly members which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a prologue and preface to that which we shall be and act hereafter It was a phansie which possessed many of the Heathen that men after death should much desire and often handle those things which did most take and affect them when they lived So Lucian bringeth in Priam's young son calling for milk and cheese and such country cates which he most delighted in on earth Even now saith Maximus Tyrius doth Aesculapius minister physick Hercules try the strength of his arm Castor and Pollux are under sail Minos is on the bench and Achilles in armes This was but a phansie but a fiction But it is a fair resemblance of a Christian in this respect whose span is but a prologue to eternity a short and imperfect declaration of that which he shall act more perfectly hereafter whose life is Grace and whose eternity shall be in Glory which is nothing else saith the devout School-man but gratia consummata nullatenus impedita Grace made perfect and consummate finding no opposition no temptation to struggle and fight with For though there will be no place for Almes where there is no poverty no use of Prayers where there is no want nor need of Patience where there can be no injury yet to Praise and Glorifie God are everlasting offices tribute due to God's Power and Goodness and Wisdom which are as everlasting as Himself to be rendred him here on earth in our spirits and in our bodies and to be continued by us with Angels and Archangels in
the land desolate untill the consummation and that determined shall be poured out upon it For the judgments of God are like to those waters which came out of the Temple at first they are shallow and come but to the ankles Ezek. 47. anon they are deeper and come up unto the loins but at length they are so deep that they give no passage over And therefore let us beware of God's judgments betimes whilst they are yet foordable when they are come but to the ankles when they are but corrections but if we stay till they come to the loins let us haste and pass them through for if we tempt his patience longer and wade yet a little further we shall find no passage at all by which to fly and escape from the wrath to come but it will swallow us up everlastingly And here to make some Use of this we may cry out with the Prophet Jeremiah Be astonished O you Heavens at this Jer. 2.12 and be ye horribly afraid be ye very desolate For Men who have understanding are become more unreasonable then the beasts more senseless then the Heavens then stocks or stones then Idols who have eyes yet see not the judgments of the Lord eares and yet hear not his voice when he is angry hands and yet feel not the scorpions of a Deity Prov. 23.35 God hath stricken us yet we are not sick he hath beaten us and we felt it not Our wickedness hath not corrected us and our backslidings have not reproved us God hath been jealous of us and we still provoke him to jealousie and would be stronger then he we strive and try it out with him as if he had no arme to strike or we had skill and activity to avoid the blow Nay the sword is latched in our sides and we walk delicately with all his judgments about us feel it not though he hath sent a fire into our bones He hath clothed himself with vengeance and we strut in purple he is angry and we are wanton he frowneth and we smile he hath hewn down thousands of us with the sword and we walk about drest up like coffins with herbs and flowers carrying our own funerals about with us He hath threatned to remove our candlestick and we so little fear it that it is our study to prevent him and do it our selves to send us false Prophets and we are ready to receive them as angels of light to destroy our Sanctuary and it is our religion to beat it down What can God do to us to make us believe he is angry what worm can gnaw us what fire scorch us but that of Hell Should he appear visibly before us with all his artillery in his hand unless he struck us dead we should attempt to besiege and invade him For what can he almost do in this kind which he hath not done What hailstones and coals of fire hath he which he hath not rained down upon us He may seem even to have emptied his quiver and drawn at several times all his judgments out of the treasury of his wrath yet we are still the same As it was in the dayes of Noah we eat and drink and be merry and the same profane sacrilegious covetous malicious proud unmerciful men the same giant-like sinners till the general floud till judgment sweep us away Like Caligula that monster of men in Seneca we threaten and challenge Jupiter himself to battel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou trouble me I will trouble thee So mad saith Seneca that he thought Jupiter could not hurt him or if he did that he could revenge it and return it back again upon Jupiter We do not indeed speak it for what Atheist will profess he is so but in effect we do it even fight against Heaven and bid defiance to God himself thinking it humility enough to hearken after him and honour enough to mention his name though it be with the tongue of a Pharisee When were there more symptomes and indications of an angry God when were there more demonstrations of a gainsaying people When was there more misery when was there more vanity When was there more cause of humility when was there more pride It was no great wonder that this horrid monster Pride should find an entrance and room amongst those spiritual substances the Angels because in heaven there could no calamity approch near unto them or seize upon them to allay and abate that tumour SED QUID SUPERBIS PULVIS ET CINIS Why art thou proud dust and ashes which could not be said to Lucifer And therefore as we began so we must end Be astonished O Heavens at this be horribly afraid be ye desolate For Desolation it self cannot humble mortal Man whose breath is in his nostrils For when God's judgments are near us when they are about us when they are entred into out very bowels we put them far from us place them over our heads out of our sight Yet run over all the flying book of curses look back and contemplate all the fearful judgments of God with which he used to redeem his glory and avenge him upon a proud and stubborn people Famine Plague Sword the Burning of Sodome the Drowning of the old world and you shall not find so great a judgement as this Not to be sensible of God's judgments What is it then not to be bettered what is it to be hardned by them Let us pray then to God with the Prophet David Psal 51. Create in us new hearts and renew a right spirit within us or as it is Ezek. 11.19 Take away these hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh or rather with Bonaventure that God would take from us these hearts of flesh such as they are and give us hearts of stone for were they stone they would be more sensible then ours and God by these his judgments as he did once by the hand and rod of Moses may strike our hearts more stony and obdurate then the rock and the waters of true contrition may flow out in such a stream which may first carry away our sins and then his judgments We will conclude with the speech of our Saviour to the women of Jerusalem when he was going to his cross with some little change Luke 23.28 Daughters of Jerusalem saith he weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your children If we will not seek God for his own sake who is the fountain of goodness and onely to be sought yet let us seek him for our selves and if not for our selves yet for our wives and children for our City for our Country for our Church For Sin is as the Dragon's tail in the Revelation which sweepeth down many stars along with it involveth millions of those who committed it Let God's mercy allure let his judgments terrifie us If we seek him he will be found though it be through his rayes or through the storm by his
Joh. 2.6 when in all our carriage and behaviour we can truly say Sic oculos sic Ille manus sic ora ferebat Thus did or thus said my Saviour The lives and actions of men are subject to errour and the best of God's Saints in all ages have had their falls David is said to have been a man after God's own heart yet if we should follow David in all his paths he would lead us into those two fearful precipices Adultery and Murther Peter was a great Apostle but if we should imitate all Peter's actions we should not follow Christ but deny him In our imitation therefore of men we must observe the Apostles Caution here in the Text and be followers of the Saints even as they also are followers of Christ and no further When they go awry from Christ's example we must leave them be they what they will and carefully follow the presedent that our Lord hath set us He is the Way and the Truth and the Life He never went astray himself Joh. 14.6 neither can he mislead us He will be unto us as the Pillar of the cloud and of sire was to the Israelites a sure Guide to the Land of promise to the heavenly Canaan If we keep our eye still fixed upon him and heedfully and constantly follow his conduct we shall walk in the wayes of Truth and Peace walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called worthy of the name whereby we are called CHRISTIANS we shall give testimony of the truth and sincerity of our Faith and perform the promise and profession made at our Baptism which is to follow the example of our Saviour Christ and be made like unto him we shall adorn the Gospel honour our Master and glorifie our Father which is in heaven in a word we shall guide others in the way to happiness by our good example shining among them as lights in the world and we our selves having served our own generation by the will of God shall in the regeneration and the times of restitution of all things be received by him whom we have followed into those mansions of rest and glory which he is gone to prepare for us that where he is there we may be also The Eight and Thirtieth SERMON PROV XXVIII 13. He that covereth his sinnes shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Rom. 12.16 Prov. 3.7 Prov. 26.12 BE not wise in your own conceits It is St. Paul's counsel And it is the Wisemans counsel also And he giveth the reason for it Seest thou a wise man in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool then of him more hope of him that hath no use of reason then of him that hath and abuseth it that draweth it down to vile and base offices that maketh it ministerial and serviceable to his lusts that first imployeth it as a midwife to bring forth that sinne which his lust hath conceived and then when it hath brought it forth maketh it as a nurse to cherish it first to find out wayes to mature and perfect it and then to cast a shadow to cover it Certainly there is more hope of a fool then of him For a fool setteth not up to himself any end and so is not frustrate or defeated of it But he that is wise in his own conceit is the more unhappy fool of the two for he proposeth to himself an end and doth not only fail and come short of it but falleth and is bruised on a contrary He promiseth to himself glory and meeteth with shame he looketh towards Prosperity and is made miserable he flattereth himself with hope of Life and is swallowed up by death he smileth and pleaseth and applaudeth himself and perisheth he lifteth up himself on high and falleth and is buried in the mire and filth of his own conceits That which he seeketh flyeth from him and that which he runneth from overtaketh him The truth of which hath been visible in many particulars and written as it were with the bloud of those who have sought death in the errour of their lives and here Solomon hath manifested it in this Proverb or wise sentence which I have read unto you For how happy do we think our selves if we can sin and then hide and cover our sin from our own and others eyes and yet Wisdom it self hath said He that doth so shall not prosper What a disgrace do we count it to confess and forsake sin and yet he that doth so shall find mercy Our wayes are not as God's wayes That which we gather for a flower is a noysome and baneful weed that which we make our joy is turned into sorrow that which we apply to heal doth more wound our balm is poyson and our Paradise Hell Ye have heard of the wisedom of Solomon Hearken to it in this particular which crosseth the wisedom of this world He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Which words teach us these two things 1. The Danger of covering or excusing our sins He that covereth his sins shall not prosper 2. The Remedy or way to avoid this danger but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy The first we shall especially insist upon and shew it you in respect 1. of God 2. of our selves First the danger of covering our sins appeareth in this that sin cannot be covered cannot admit of excuse Omnis excusatio sui aequitate nititur say the Civilians All excuse is founded on equity and none is good but so far as equity commendeth it As far then as Sin may be covered or excused so far it is not sin at least not lyable to punishment For our own experience will tell us that where excuse with reason may run there it exempteth the accused both from fault and punishment We read Levit. 10. Vers 19. that when Aaron's sons had not eaten the goat of the sin-offering according to the Law and Aaron had made that reasonable excuse which we find that his sorrow for his two sons Nadab and Abihu had made him unfit to eat of those Holy things vvhich they vvere to do rejoycing Deut. 12.7 Deut. 26.14 and vvhen they brought their sanctified things they vvere to say I have not eat thereof in my mourning vvhen he had made this excuse the Text telleth us When Moses heard that he was content And this is the difference betwixt Moral and Ceremonial Laws Aliud sunt imagines saith Tertullian aliud definitiones Imagines prophetant definitiones gubernant We are governed not by Ceremonies vvhich pass away as a shadow but by Laws vvhich are immutable and indispensable Ceremonies are arbitrary and not only Reason but God himself doth in this case frame excuses and putteth them in our mouth and covereth what deformity soever they may present to men that cannot but misinterpret what they understand not David in his Hunger eateth of the shew-bread
proceeded to the attaining of it The Stork in the air knoweth her appointed times Jer. 8.7 and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming Pliny speaking of the Bees telleth us Quod maximè mirum est mores habent A wonderful thing it is to see that natural honesty and justice which is in them Onely Man the soveraign Lord of all the creatures whom it most principally concerned to be thus endowed was sent into the world utterly devoid of any such knowledge nisi alienâ misericordiâ sustinere se nequit as Ambrose speaketh and without forein and borrowed help never so much as getteth a sight of his own proper end Amongst natural men none there are in whom appetite is so extinct but that they see something which they propose unto themselves as a scope of their hopes and reward of their labours and in the obtaining of which they suppose all their happiness to reside Yet even in this which men principally incline to direction is so faulty particulars so infinite that most sit down in the midst of their way and come far short of that mark which their hopes set up And if our Wisdom be so feeble and deficient in those things which are sensible and open to our view what laws what light what direction have we need of to carry us on in the way to that happiness which no mortal eye can approch Hannibal in Livy being to pass the Alps a thing that time held impossible yet comforteth himself with this Nullas terras coelum contingere nec inexsuperabiles humano generi esse That how high soever they were they were not so high as heaven nor unpassable if men were industrious The pertinacy of Man's industry may find waies through desarts through rocks through the roughest seas But our attempt is far greater The way we must make is from earth to heaven a thing which no strength or wit of man could ever yet compass Therefore Christ our King who knoweth Man to be a wandring and erring creature would not leave it to his shallow discretion who no sooner thinketh but erreth nor setteth down his foot but treadeth amiss but he cometh himself into the world promulgeth his Laws which may be to him as Tiresias his staff in the Poet able to guide his feet were he never so blind and in his Gospel he giveth him sound directions no way subject unto errour guideth him as it were with a bridle putteth his Law into his heart chalketh out his way before him and like a skilful Pilot sheweth him what course to take what Syrtes what rocks to avoid lest he make an irrecoverable shipwreck of body and soul His Laws are the Compass by which if he steer his course he shall pass the gulf and be brought to that haven where he would be 1 Pet. 2.9 Rom. 2. 6. Therefore hath Christ called us out of darkness into his wonderful light And we are the called of Jesus Christ gathered together into a Church an House a Family a City a Republick Our Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 municipatus as Tertullian rendreth it our Burgership is in heaven And the Philosopher will tell us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that will erect a Society a Commonwealth must also frame Laws and fit and shape them to that form of Commonwealth which he intendeth For Lavvs are numismata Reipublicae the coins as it were by vvhich vve come to knovv the true face and representation of a Commonvvealth the different complexions of States and Societies And Christ our King hath dravvn out Laws like unto his Kingdom vvhich are most fit and appliable to that end for vvhich he hath gathered us into one body His sceptre is a sceptre of righteousness and his Laws are just He came down from heaven and his Laws carry us back thither He received them from his Father John 10.18 as himself speaketh and these make us like unto his Father These govern our Understanding nè assentiat that it yield not assent to that errour which our lusts have painted over in the shape of Truth and these regulate our Will nè consentiat that it do not bow and chuse it and these order our Affections that they may be servants and not commanders of our Reason These make a heaven in our Understanding these place the image of God in our Will and make it like unto his these settle peace and harmony in the Affections that they become weapons of righteousness and fight the battels of our King and Law-giver My Anger may be a sword my Love a banner my Hope a staff and my Fear a buckler In a word Christ's Laws will fit us for his Kingdom here and prepare us for his Kingdom hereafter Therefore in the next place they are necessary for us as the onely means to draw us nigh unto himself and to that end for which he came into the world Every end hath its proper means fitted and proportioned to it Knowledge hath study Riches have labour and industry Honour hath policy Even he that setteth up an end which he is ashamed of and hideth from the Sun and the people draweth a method and plot in himself to bring him to it The Thief hath his night and darkness and the Wanton his twilight And his hope entitleth and joyneth him to the end though he never reach it In the Kingdom of Satan there are rules and laws observed A thought ushereth in a Sin and one Sin draweth on another and at last Destruction And this is the way of that wisdome which is but foolishness And shall men work iniquity as by a law and can we hope to be raised to an eternity of glory and be left to our selves or to attain it by those means which hold no proportion at all with it Will the Gospel the bare Tidings of peace do it Will a phansie a thought a wish an open profession have strength enough to lift us up to it Happiness in phansie is a picture and no more In a wish it is less for I wish that which I would not have And barely to profess the means and acknowledge the way unto it is to give my self the lie nay to call my self a fool for what greater folly can there be then to say This is the way and not to walk in it If we were thus left unto our selves all our happiness were but a dream and every thought a sin against the holy Ghost We should wish our King neither just nor wise nor holy we should call him our King and leave him no sceptre in his hand no power to make a Law look forward toward the mark and run backward from it give Christ a Hail and crucifie him call an innocent Christ our King and be men of Belial an humble Christ and swell above our measure a merciful Christ and be cruel a just Christ and be oppressours hope to attain the end without the means and against